Shattered Kingdoms

Here is my proposed change:

Tribunal bounty NPCs are free. When they spawn, the defending tribunal is not charged any coin. Bounty NPCs always spawn at the inn for a criminal or for a known member of a warring faction.

What does cost money for a tribunal is the death of a named tribunal guard. To use the Peacekeepers, as an example, this would mean that when Lazeran, Baltus, Gervais, ect. die, the Peacekeepers are charged an amount which is to represent that guard's salary.

The purpose of this change is two-fold. I believe this stops people from farming bounty NPCs just to drain a tribunal's coffers. Sure, you could hunt specific named-mobs of that tribunal in order to drain their coffers if you wanted, but that takes more effort and requires more risk on the part of the attacker. Another thing this does is cause an attacking tribunal to have to decide how important it is to take a named-mob with them when they come to attack a city. If the Peacekeepers want to go attack Menegroth and they take Lazeran, they have to know that Lazeran's death will be paid for by their coffers. This stops tribunal characters from simply recalling as soon as their guard NPC dies, and returning within 30 seconds with a new guard NPC (they could still do this, but their coffers will suffer for it).

P.S. This is not aimed any any specific player or any specific faction or group of players. This is just an idea I've had for a little while and I thought I'd put it out there.

I could get behind this idea if the frequency in which bounty NPCs spawned was also reduced.

Personally I'd rather not add in more ways for tribunals to have to "feed the meter." At least the way it is now, keeping bounty NPCs around is optional. Access to guard NPCs, though, is essential for mounting a defense. And I suspect the offline bounty NPC farming would just turn into "named NPC farming."

Although its been said..

many times many ways..

bounty NPCs suck.

I'm not sure how I see this. Sometimes the named NPCs are absolutely necessary, like say a lone priest defending against a Necromancer or something. They need those meat shields and a lone templar just doesn't hold a candle to Lazeran or whatever the keeper tank NPC is. Losing them would be a great detriment.

If this was implemented though, I could see the named NPCs potentially receiving a boost in their power to justify the cost of keeping them. The only downside to that is potentially NPCs doing all the work for them if they're over buffed.

Not really sure one way or another.

This is a pretty solid idea. Main problem I've seen whenever I've been in a tribunal is people grinding bounty NPCs. Look at it this way. Tribunals already lose money right now for bounty NPCs. So you're not 'losing' or 'adding' more costs to tribunals, so there is no reason to be afraid of using them for the loss of coin because at worst it's a wash. If anything, these named NPCs are in a far more defensive position when the tribunal is offline and they are stronger than bounty NPCs.

Having a high bounty spawn rate in inns is a great idea as well.

I agree with moving the cost to the named NPCs and less frequency of the bounty NPCs.

this.

By the way, am I correct in thinking that running a kingdom's economy into the dirt also means that newbies have a harder time getting money and buying essential gear?

NPCs drop less money, so yes it is harder to collect it. On the other hand, goods also become cheaper in that kingdom. But since you may want to spend the money elsewhere, I'd say it doesn't quite even out.

But now that I think about it, your entire statement is based on an inaccurate preconception. Emptying the tribunal's bank account has nothing more to do with the economy than if your individual character goes bankrupt.